After serving for only seven days, Admiral Tim Asmourescu resigned from the office of Attorney General, citing personal reasons. While personal reasons may have played a factor in his decision, perhaps the driving reason for his abrupt resignation lies in an Terpelaziun posed by a Member of Cosa, which called into question his decisons as the Government’s chief counsel with regard to his action against that same Government.
Alexandreu Davinescu, a RUMP MC from Maritiimi-Mazhestic, posed his question shortly after Admiral Tim was appointed to office, asking about the status of T.M. Asmourescu versus The Chancery, a case that was filed in December of 2013/XXXIV. The case, which stemmed from a backdated Writ of Termination of Citizenship against Asmourescu, was filed in the Uppermost Court as a Petition for Emergency Injunction to stop the Writ from taking effect. After Justice Ián Tamorán granted the petition, a wave of posts seeking clarifications on Organic applicability or general procedure flooded the case thread, sparking Tamorán to call Order in the Cort. The Justice later set a deadline — January 14th, 2014/XXXV — for any further posts by interested parties, of which there was only one. The case has sat dormant ever since.
Responding to Davinescu’s Terpelaziun, Attorney General Asmourescu stated that “Asmourescu v. Chancery was never anything more than a motion for an ex parte injunction. It is not a trial…merely a request for an injunction which has since been issued. ... [I]f this, or any future Ministry of Justice, chose to take issue with the…ruling, the proper avenue would be an appeal. And since this matter was between Asmourescu and the Chancery, I fail to see how the Attorney General would maintain any standing to undertake such an action. The Chancery is fully capable of representing itself in court as it has always done.”
Asmourescu stated that the Chancery could appeal if it chose, but that, in his opinion, the matter was "closed."
MC Davinescu, in asking his follow-up question, had concerns regarding Asmourescu’s reasoning. He drew conclusions from the Attorney-General's reasoning, summing it up: “[Y]ou suggest that the Attorney General’s office has no obligation to help defend the Crown or its servants…but that instead they should enlist their own counsel. You elaborate that the Attorney General is in fact unable to defend unless specifically enlisted.” In Davinescu's eyes, this wasn't acceptable.
Davinescu’s actual follow-up question, however, dealt with the “general nature of ex part orders”, arguing that they are not permanent orders in the realm of Anglo-American law. He suggested that in Talossa the next step (as prescribed by Cort rules) would be a hearing and judgment.
Admiral Asmourescu replied cordially, “While I appreciate your legal review … I am confident that my decision not to pursue the matter further is both legal and appropriate.”
After this reply, Davinescu posed a Terp to Seneschal Glüc da Dhi, on whether he felt it was appropriate for “the Attorney General to…decide whether or not his office will defend the Crown against his own petition?” Pressure was being applied: would the Government stand by this decision?
Asmourescu himself says that his interpretation of the case had already been shared and agreed with by the government prior to his taking office as Solicitor-General under AG Oin Ursum. “From there,” he said, “I became Attorney-General but I wasn’t a political appoint as much as a civil servant who was the most likely successor to the job with my predecessor’s sudden resignation.”
However, he says, “When the issue was raised in the terp, Glüc approached me and stated that the question made him reconsider my position and he felt I should appoint a special prosecutor to essentially challenge my own citizenship…I advised him that I understood his position, but that I would not lead a department trying to get my citizenship thrown out…So I resigned to allow [the government] to proceed.”
Although Asmourescu says that he was asked numerous times to reconsider, he felt that the Seneschal “had lost confidence in my legal reasoning by accepting the contrary analysis of another attorney.”
Seneschal da Dhi claims that this was not exactly what took place. While he says that he “probably” discussed Asmourescu vs Chancery with others in Government before the Solicitor-General appointment, he never discussed the case directly with the former Admiral himself. After the Terps were asked, da Dhi sought advice from others and “was convinced that Tim’s answers to the question may not have been sufficient”, adding that he still “didn’t know exactly who is right or not.”
While da Dhi was in the middle of discussing his concerns with Asmourescu (to better grasp his interpretations and to seek possible solutions), he says that, “Tim already concluded that he should resign.” Seneschal da Dhi said that he did try to get Asmourescu to reconsider his resignation, and “tried to explore different options," including the option of appointing someone from outside to deal with the issue which would free him from representing the Chancery, but “I suggested that AFTER he had already said he would resign.”
Soon after his decision to resign from the office of Attorney-General, Asmourescu sent an email to Alexandreu Davinescu, which Davinescu publicly addressed, saying that it was “filled with profanity and personal insults," posting that it was unacceptable behavior for an Attorney-General to respond to a legislator’s public questioning in such a manner.
Asmourescu replied: “If you had bothered to read it you would note that it began with a statement that I resigned…and every profane word applies to you without reservation.” He also replied to Davinescu by email, a second time.
Davinescu, who would not release the email exchange, citing the need to protect the privacy of those involved, calls them “vulgar and directly insulting.”
Asmourescu says that the first line of the email was a statement saying he had resigned from office, and that the rest of the email was “a series of personal statements directed toward S:reu Davinescu which concluded with my request that he not contact me through any media ever again.” He went on to say that it was improper for Davinescu to respond in the Terp thread with the assertion that an “ ’Attorney-General’ had sent such an email to an MC," stating that he was a private citizen when he sent the email. In Asmourescu's eyes, “[Davinescu] actively chose to ‘call out’ a private citizen within the chambers of the Ziu or he ignored that line and proceed to react to the rest of the email … [The post] was an opportunistic attempt to drag a personal dispute into a political forum.”
In responding to this, Davinescu says that he was “astonished that we’ve gotten to the point of quibbling about my phrasing," saying that while he noted Asmorescu’s resignation in the first line of the email, he did not know if Asmorescu would either be “persuaded” to stay on or otherwise reconsider, since no resignation was yet public. “The real issue is that an MC did his job, uncovered an abuse of power, and got hate mail from the official in return.”
Asmorescu admits that the email contained profanity and statements directed at S:reu Davinescu, however, he stands by “every single one of them," noting his regret about the “personal dispute” being made public after his resignation. He claims to be considering filing charges of libel.
Regarding his resignation, Asmorescu says that he does have outside obligations which would have prevented him from “dedicating the amount of time appropriate for a cabinet level minister," which include a new dandelion, work obligations, and a co-authored novel in the works. He says that his resignation “was really an opportunity to pursue some interest which had been tabled due to the administrative burden of my holding office … Neither the government, nor S:reu Davinescu pushed me out of office. However, the opportunity to transition out presented itself, albeit earlier than I had anticipated.” B